clean up

It is way hot and humid. It was clean up day in our neighborhood today. The neighborhood group went around cleaning up garbage. I went with a group cleaning up big stuff, tires, appliances that people have dumped. Lots of shtuff around that people decide they can get rid of easy because it's the country. The problem is that, even though it is the country, it is our home. Great group.

Rice

sustenance on the root. If you use your imagination and look carefully, you can see a tadpole in the foreground, at the base of the second plant from the right.

Young Russians embrace English

This article about English language in Russia serves as a great source of contrasts which we can use to evaluate English education in Japan and elsewhere. If what is written here is true, curriculum makers and teachers in Japan could learn alot.

I'd like to copy the whole thing, but that probably wouldn't be wise. Some of the better quotes are:

"The fact that our students start learning language at an early age (6-7 years old) helps a lot, as does the possibility to teach English in small groups of 8-10 students,"

Even university admission demands fluency and understanding. "You should be able to read, understand what you have read, answer the examiner's questions, talk with the examiner, speak on a chosen topic," Ludanik says.

The abiding impression left by Russia is of a place where English is taught as a means to an end rather than as an end in itself.

Teachers reprimanded for not singing national anthem

Does this kind of thing happen in other parts of the world? What would happen if a teacher in the US decided not to stand in protest of something?

I wonder how the government justifies punishing only teachers. Is it because they occupy such significant roles in society that the powers that be in Tokyo can't let it go?
Japan Today - News - Teachers reprimanded for not singing national anthem - Japan's Leading International News Network

games in the classroom

Using games at the beginning of class seems to be having some unforseen rewards. People, even cynical college students, seem to have fun with them. It serves as a war up for the day's lesson, and a review of features, mostly vocabulary, of other classes.

I have found most of the games I use by searching for ideas on the Internet. For example, today I input ESL, games, clothes in Google. The resulting games weren't exactly what I wanted, most of them being web-based kinds of vocabulary games, so I modified one that looked useful.

The game I modified was a rhythm game, where a group makes a rhythm by slapping their thighs once, clapping once, and snapping their fingers twice. The students sit in a circle, and while keeping the rhythm going, they say the name of an item of clothing that they already knew or learned in our class. My job was to count how many people could say an item of clothing, and each group got that total as a score. There were three groups, and they could compete.

Even though the scores were quite different the first time around, they became more uniform as groups got more practice.

Toastmasters speech contest

I teach a course on English speech making at the Community College here from time to time. It is interesting to me that there are several Toastmasters groups around Japan that focus on English speech making. This is an article about a fellow who won one of the most recent events.

Last Samurai

This post doesn't have much to do with EFL, only with being an American in Japan and the kind of insight one can get this far away.

Saw the film, "Last Samurai" last night. It was a profound film for me, probably more on a personal level than anything. It may not have been a great film, but it was certainly good to watch. This film embodied many of the feelings that I have about the conflict in Iraq.

The first moment that the film struck me so personally was this one where Higen and Algren were talking. Higen is the son of a warrior that Algren had killed in battle.

HIGEN
Will you fight the white men?

ALGREN
If they come here, yes.

HIGEN
Why?

ALGREN
Because they come to destroy what I
have come to love.

The things that Algren had initially come to fight for in Japan had changed. His beliefs had transformed so that what the American and Japanese governments actually stood for, no longer represented his world view. I'm not saying that his initial world view was noble; on the contrary it had mostly to do with finacial reward and alcohol. I can relate to his new world view now in Bush's conflicts in Iraq and Afganistan. In the film, the rich and powerful people of Japan and America were interested in futhering their own financial powers by building railroads and dealing in arms at the expense of the common people. The same is now true in Iraq and Afganistan, but with oil thrown in the mix. Like Algren, after being apart from the America for a while, and after having been thrust into a circumstances that necessitate reflection, there is room for new perspectives. It is easy to see for me that the rich and powerful do not represent what I believe. They do not represent what I believe is the best of America. And the people who suffer are the common people. The farmers, and the soldiers. Our soldiers are fighting to defend what is good and right about America, while Bush and his like pervert their good intentions. The good people of Iraq and Afganistan are dieing in the tens of thousands, and suffering knows no bounds there.

Another point here is that our warriors, our men and women who have so bravely gone to fight for the true and good America, need support and protection from the perversity and greed of their leaders, even though I don't really know how to do that right now.

I was also interested that in the movie, the good guys lost. The good people of Japan lost to the greedy and powerful, and the Americans actually got the arms deals they were after. The greedy and powerful in Japan went on to cause great suffering and grief, not just in Japan, but all over Asia and Russia in the years after the film. American history, well you know all about that. The blowback still goes on. The arms deals still go on.

Teachers' Seminar

We had another gathering of the teachers in the Yokkaichi teachers' initiative today. Several things that I want to write about. First is that one of the teachers' father died last week and she couldn't attend today. I feel for her loss. Teachers are always there for their students, especially these teachers. I hope she has the support she needs and deserves.

We did a workshop on Reflective Teacher Development today. That is always an interesting topic. Our first activity was to write an autobiography as it relates to our chosen profession. Some of the commonalities were revealing. Most of the teachers had overseas experience before they chose their profession. All but one of the teachers started out in other professions or with other professional goals before choosing to become teachers. All of the teachers had an extensive background in English learning before they chose to become teachers. Many of the teachers expressed an interest in meeting many people as being a reason for becoming a teacher. Everyone had a generally enjoyable first experience in teaching.

Their second task was to remember how their visions of teaching were similar or different from the actual practice of teaching. Some of the teacher mentioned that even though they were sure that students understood student/teacher roles, their students did not always obey the teacher. (Surprised?) Next they were all surprised by the stuff involved with teaching that actually has nothing to do with teaching like clubs, meetings, and busywork. This left them, in one teacher's words, "pressured, stressed, tired."

One other quote that I heard today was, "They (students) don't come to class to study English. They come to have fun in English." I liked that distinction.

translation costing alot

Looks here like
a school in Gunma Prefecture wants to start a school program in English only, but the cost for translating textbooks is causing problems.

It is interesting that the reason for translating Education Minstry approved texts is provide parents with peace of mind that they are conforming to an established curriculum. Lots of questionable motives here.

Daily Yomiuri On-Line

There are some interesting suppositions in this article passed off as truths.
1. The reason teachers have a hard time mananging first-grade classes is that children are unable to adapt to their surroundings.
2. There is a disintegration of acceptable behavior.
3. This disintegration is the fault of family and community to raise children properly. Even though a few paragraphs later a university spokesperson hints that teacher training may be a problem.
4. Children who are not psychologically mature enough (read children who do not obey blindly) contribute to "unacceptable behavior."
5. Children who cause trouble are those who cannot adapt. (see #3 above.)

On the whole, a pretty poorly written article, but one that demonstrates the level of confusion in formal education about how to educate young people. Small classes? More teachers? Better parents? Lots of thrashing around, but no real evidence supporting any decisions.

university students to teach English at primary schools

This article says that Kansai University of Foreign Languages in Hirakata, Osaka, will send some of its students who have studied abroad for some time to teach English at local elementary schools. The article says that they will be teaching "English conversation and international communication."

The local Board of Education says that the experience will help primary school teachers by giving them "teaching know-how" from universities.

Nice idea. It would be great for the children to hear about young adults' experiences abroad and encouraging stories. I'm not convinced about the rest.

Slide show on Ise Shrine

Again, in searching for information on non-Japanese history in Mie Prefecture, I stumbled upon this slideshow about Ise Shrine. It partially answers some of the questions that I have had since I came here:
1. Why is the most important shrine in the country in Ise?
2. What were the economic/political forces that encouraged the building of the shrine?
check out this slideshow

ALL-JAPAN POW CAMP GROUP STATISTICS

I was surprised by this information. I never thought of Yokkaichi as being the location of a POW camp during WWII. I was doing a little research on the history of non-Japanese in Mie when this came up. ALL-JAPAN POW CAMP GROUP STATISTICS

Korean English students more active and confident

Looks like Korean students of Enlgish are more active and confident than their Japanese counterparts, says a study by the Benesse Group.

Looks like the results may be in the kinds of activities that they have in their classes.

Singing in class

Not me! Today, I went back over the "Blowin' in the Wind" lyrics today. We just read through it. After we finished, I had started another activity and noticed that two of the guys in class were singing the song on their own.

I was happy.

Games and Songs

As part of the projects that we are working on in the Yokkaichi Teachers' Initiative, I have decided to undertake an action research project. I will include games and songs in each of the classes that I teach in university classes.

So far I have tried games out in three classes. They seem to help students have some fun and seems to make the atmosphere more cheerful from the beginning of class. We had unit tests today, but everyone was cheerful.

Boy Scouts in Japan

I haven't blogged in some time, because I have been out in the woods with the Boy Scouts of Japan.

A little history first. I was a Scout in the American Scouting program from the time I was 11 to the time I became an adult, and then served as a volunteer for a few years until it became impossible with obligations at university.

Since I have been in Japan, I have not been tempted to return to Scouting activities, because my plate has been rather full. Recently, though, I have been back around Scouting in Japan, because my son showed an interest and joined a local troup. After hanging out with them for a while, I decided that I should volunteer some of my time. I spent a week with the troop last year at summer camp, and most recently I signed up for Wood Badge training here in Mie Prefecture.

Wood Badge training is adult leader training, and in the case of Boy Scouts, as they are still called here in Japan (America changed the name to Scouting some years ago when women were allowed to participate) Scout Master training.

I'll elaborate on the training event in more detail later, but I thought I'd share a couple of thoughts. First, I think the experience was related to the content of this blog, because is was all about education, the education of leaders who will in turn educate young people. Second, I got some insights into my teaching and learning.

New Stuff from Blogger!

Lots of great new features here at Blogger. I am really happy with the changes. I had been considering changing services, but this has satisfied me.

Thanks, Gentles at Blogger.